Daily Archives: November 3, 2012

In the last post we looked at counts of weather-related natural catstrophes according to Munich Re, the giant re-insurance corporation. It was mentioned that part of the increasing trend could be due to changes in the way catastrophes are counted, and in the number of people and value of property which is susceptible to such catastrophes. Although Munich Re adjusts their classification each decade to account for this, any such attempt is bound to be imperfect.

But it was also pointed out that Munich Re tracks catastrophes which are not weather-related (earthquake, tsunami, volcanic eruption), classifying them as “geophysical.” Do these geophysical events also show a trend? If so, are they increasing as fast as weather-related catastrophes?